Michael Lewis: Right Or Wrong?
As I was re-reading a recent article of his on cat bonds I began to wonder, does he ever regret having left the trading floor all those years ago? Apparently, he was actually quite good at it (bond sales) so the opportunity costs in terms of money and career progression would not belong to the insignificant category. Michael Lewis most likely gave up potentially vast fame and fortune by choosing to type his days away.
Of course, he has found tangible fame and fortune as an author. I bet that Liar´s Poker has netted him sufficient dividends throughout the years to sustain a decent lifestyle based on those royalties alone. But the added bonus is that all his other books have also become best-sellers. Michael Lewis certainly belongs to that tiny elite, the writer that achieves wealth through writing.
But, one wonders, enough wealth to drive the ghosts of regret into absolute oblivion? Enough recognition to erase all yearnings for a lost i-banking career? Enough satisfaction to compensate for the abandonment of Managing Director dreams?
I, for one, would hope that the answers to those questions are all affirmative. Having seen so many outsiders desperate to gain an i-banking job and so many insiders desperate to hold on to it (even if they were subpar pros and/or hated their daily chores) I understand that it takes a special kind of guts to kiss the trading floor goodbye, especially if you are a star performer, most especially if you do it so that you can embark on the extremely risky authorship path. I don´t know whether Michael Lewis was independently wealthy and thus could afford to follow his literary passions in a stress-less manner, but if he wasn´t he was then making the very manly move from certain wealth into near-certain poverty. You need to be endowed with a certain kind of stones in order to take such leap of faith. And to those kinda guys I can only wish them good.
ptriana@profesor.ie.edu
